


drinking alone

by helsinkibaby



Category: NCIS
Genre: Community: 1-million-words, F/M, Married Ellie, Nick overspeaks, Pre Relationship, Season 14 Rewrite
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-08
Updated: 2019-08-08
Packaged: 2020-08-13 02:35:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20166739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: A conversation with her new team mate brings something to light for Ellie.





	drinking alone

**Author's Note:**

> For one million words Mob Quotes weekend challenge. “When you love someone, you gotta trust them.”

Ellie stabs her phone screen to end the call, wishing that she was at her desk on an actual landline - crashing the handset down would be so much more satisfying. Taking a deep breath, she presses her back against the wall of the diner - she’d heard somewhere that it was meant to reduce stress - and counts to ten, forward and backward, in every language she knows. 

She’s still annoyed when she finishes. 

Which makes her annoyed and hungry and she knows which one she can do something about. 

Striding into the diner, she sees Nick straight away. Her team mate of a couple of months is sitting in a booth, eyes on the door and he lifts his hand in a wave, just in case she doesn’t see him. She gives him a smile that she knows is tight and forced as she walks in his direction, sliding into the booth across from him. “I didn’t know what you wanted,” he says, sliding the menu across to her. “And ordering one of everything just seemed excessive, so...”

Ellie flips open the menu, stares at it without really seeing it. “What looks good?” she asks. 

It takes a second for Nick to respond and when it does, it’s not what she’s expecting. “Bishop, you ok?” 

She blinks. “Of course I’m ok,” she lies. “Why wouldn’t I...” Her voice trails off as she realises and he holds up his hands, starts talking quickly. 

“I wasn’t trying to be nosy, ok? But I could see you through the window and your body language said plenty.” He leans back, gestures with one hand towards her phone. “What, don’t tell me that Jake has a problem with you and me spending the night out here together.” 

She knows he’s saying it like that on purpose, making it sound worse than it is. However, he’s ridiculously close to the truth. 

As in, got it in one. 

She’s just not sure how to admit that.

Luckily, Nick’s a good agent and a good reader of people and he arrives at that conclusion all by himself. “Hold on... I was kidding.” 

Ellie twists her lips. “I know.” 

“We’re chasing a witness, we’ve been driving around the state all day, we’re both wiped and it’s at least a four hour drive back... what does he want us to do?” 

“Keep driving.” Ellie shrugs, tries to sound like its reasonable, even if the thought of getting back into that car right now makes her want to scream. 

“You told him it’s work, right? And that we have two rooms?” 

“Yep. It just didn’t make any difference.” She fights back a sigh, doesn’t quite succeed. 

Poor Nick just looks completely bemused. “Is he...” His voice trails off and she can see the moment he makes the decision to ask the question. “Is he always like this?” 

Ellie’s left with two options - either she can deflect and deny, or she can come clean. She opts for the second choice. Frankly, she’s amazed that Nick hasn’t heard half of this from the office rumour mill already and besides, he’s a good investigator. He’s not going to quit until he gets answers. She takes a deep breath before she speaks, the words coming as she lets it back out. 

“Jake had an affair last year.” She can tell from Nick’s wide eyes, the way he waggles his head, that that was not what he was expecting to hear. “We worked through it... but there are still some... trust issues. Sometimes.” 

Nick’s eyes go from wide like saucers to narrow slits in the time it takes her to shift in her seat under the weight of his gaze. “Wait a minute,” he says slowly, like he’s trying to work something out and has to think out loud to do it. “You’re telling me he couldn’t keep it in his pants, but you’re the one who gets the third degree when you spend time with a man who’s not him?”

Ellie looks down at the cheap Formica of the diner table, fights the urge to squirm with eveything she has. “It’s complicated-” she begins but he doesn’t let her finish. 

“It’s bullshit, Bishop, is what it is!” The words explode out of him and she looks up in surprise at the vehement tone in his voice. What she sees in his face surprises her even more - his jaw is clenched, his eyes burning with indignation. “And I mean, I get him being suspicious of me; I’m new to the team, he hasn’t met me, he doesn’t know how I roll. But you...”

His voice tapes off as he waves his arm up and down, encompassing her. He evidently thinks he’s being clear but Ellie’s confused. “Me what?” she asks, a touch defensive. Fine, so she’s not exactly the type of woman that men trip all over themselves to ask out but she doesn’t think it’s beyond the realm of possibility that she might turn a head or two. 

Maybe Nick can read her mind, figure what she’s thinking because he shakes his head. “Bishop, you are smart, you are classy, you are a badass Federal agent and you are way out of the league of like, ninety five per cent of the chuckleheads that inhabit the greater D.C. area. What you are not? Is the kind of woman who steps out on her man.” 

He says it like it’s a sure and certain fact, true as the sky being blue and water being wet. Like there’s not an ounce of doubt in his mind about it. He’s so sure of himself, so sure of her, that she feels tears coming into her eyes. It’s a long time since someone’s talked about her like that. 

It’s a long time since Jake’s talked about her like that. 

She pushes the thought out of her head. She made a choice to try to work on her marriage; she’d known at the time that it wasn’t going to happen overnight. 

Dimly, she realised that Nick is still talking. More than that, he’s frowning, is looking at her with a vaguely guilty expression on his face. “I shouldn’t have said all that... I apologise.” 

Ellie shakes her head. “Nick, it’s fine-”

“Hey, what do I know about it anyway? My last relationship was with a drug lord’s daughter while I was undercover, so not really the best basis for honesty, you know?” He chuckles but it sounds forced at best. The way he shifts in his seat also clues Ellie in on the fact that he’s feeling a little awkward. “I just figure... when you love someone, you gotta be able to trust them. That’s all.” Ellie nods thoughtfully, the words making an awful lot of sense. “And you obviously figure you can trust Jake, so that’s good, right?” 

Ellie nods again, presses her lips together. It’s meant to shore up his opinion but it must do the opposite if the way he tilts his head is any indication. “Ellie?” 

“Every time he’s late home from work, I get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.” The words come out without her having to think about them. “He had to go away for three days last month and I don’t think I slept more than two hours each night.” 

Realisation flits across Nick’s face. “Thank God for my emergency candy bar,” he says and she laughs, remembering a long stake out where it had been the difference between losing her sanity and not. 

“I want to trust him.” She knows her voice sounds weak and she hates herself, just a little, for that. “I do.” The fact that she doesn’t goes unspoken and, for once, Nick has nothing to say. She chuckles without humour as she taps her fingers against the table. “Maybe I should have listened to my grandma.”

Nick actually looks pained. “I swear, if the words band aid baby leave your lips, I’m finding the nearest bar and buying us a fifth of scotch.”

Ellie presses her lips together to fight back a grin because nothing could be further from the truth. “Grandma’s eighty nine years old, goes to church every Sunday and is the most god fearing woman you’re ever going to meet.” She pauses for effect. “When she heard what Jake had done, that we were trying to save our marriage, she told my mom to order me to, and I quote, divorce his worthless ass because leopards don’t change their spots.” 

There’s a split second of silence where Nick’s jaw is ready to hit the floor. Then he laughs. “Oh, Grandma Bishop sounds like my kinda lady. You think she’d adopt me? We could be, like, besties.” 

Ellie pretends to consider it. “If you share that fifth of scotch with her, I’m pretty sure you’re in.” 

“Done.” Nick doesn’t pretend to consider anything, he’s quick with his answer, continues with, “And if it gets me some baby Bishop pictures to put up on the flatscreen to distract Gibbs with...”

“You wouldn’t dare!” But he would and they both know it and Ellie finds herself laughing, the horrible tension of her phone call with Jake a distant memory. 

That feeling lasts all the way until she walks in her front door almost twenty four hours later. Jake’s silence is hostile, his clenched jaw saying more than words ever could. She puts up with that for two days, waiting for him to get over it until suddenly something snaps. Silent herself, she packs a bag, finds a hotel and calls herself a lawyer the next morning. 

And when a couple of days later, she opens her desk drawer and finds a fifth of scotch, if she looks across the bullpen and meets Nick’s steady gaze, she knows she won’t be drinking alone for long.


End file.
